Tommy Sheridan Begins Campaign For Re-Election

Former MSP Tommy Sheridan is hoping to return to Holyrood five years after he was jailed for perjury.

The Solidarity co-leader has launched his campaign to be elected as an MSP for the Glasgow region in May's Scottish Parliament vote.

Mr Sheridan, who was an MSP from 1999 to 2007, tops the pro-independence party's list for the area.

His wife Gail is also running for Holyrood, and is first on the list for the West of Scotland region.

Mr Sheridan was sentenced to three years in jail in 2011 after being convicted of lying in a libel case that saw him win £200,000 from the now defunct News Of The World newspaper.

He was released in 2012 after spending a year behind bars.

Solidarity currently has no MSPs at Holyrood, after Mr Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne, who was also an MSP for the party, were defeated in 2007.

But the left-wing party is campaigning to win seats on the regional list in May, with the aim of securing a second independence referendum.

Mr Sheridan appealed to nationalists who are voting for the SNP in the constituency section of the ballot to give their second vote to him.

He said: "The SNP are on course to win all nine constituency seats in Glasgow. That will mean that 90% of their list votes will not count and will be wasted. This will allow unionist parties to benefit.

"I urge the people of Glasgow not to waste their second vote. Make it count by giving it to Solidarity and elect me to fight for a second independence referendum, public ownership of public services and trade union rights, and fight against the renewal of Trident, the Tory austerity agenda, fracking, poverty and inequality.''